Michelle Ilyayev, a former graduate student of Adelphi University, is suing the institution for expelling her over false accusations.
True to the saying, 'No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,' Ilyayev got expelled from the University for attempting to return a lost iPad to its rightful possessor. The expulsion came at the wrong time for Ilyayev, just two months before being awarded a master's degree in social work.
"I look down and see an iPad and say 'geez, someone left her stuff behind,'" Ilyayev said. "All I was trying to do was be a good Samaritan."
Ilyayev alleges that she noticed the iPad on the floor of a classroom and picked it up to hand it over to the security. Since it was the first day of a new semester, Ilyayev did not want to be late for her class, so she decided to keep it with her for the time being. Two hours later, security arrested her after finding the iPad in Ilyayev's book bag.
"I said, 'I'm going to return this after class.' I didn't know there was a time limit to returning something," Ilyayev said.
She now faces criminal charges of petit larceny. "I would never steal from someone. I'm a social worker. I help people. It's just terrible. I'm trying to move on and become a social worker and I can't," Ilyayev said.
Thomas Liotti, Ilyayev's defense attorney, said that Ilyayev's expulsion is based on hasty conclusions.
"She had no legal representation; faculty, security, they all jumped to conclusions. She was going to turn it in and had no intent to take it," Liotti said.
The expulsion now lessens her chances of gaining admission in other schools.
